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RESIDENCE AT TARAPOTO 47
mixed I (and must say very degenerate) race, who
have nothing about them of the European but
a whitish skin ; their ideas, modes of life, and
language being still entirely Indian.
Tarapoto is regularly built, and covers a good
deal of ground, as the houses mostly stand in
gardens. . . . They are all of a single story with
thick walls of adobes and palm-thatch roofs.
The climate is much drier than that of the
Amazon, but this depends entirely on the peculiar
position of the town, for while heavy rains are
frequent on the hills, they are very rare at Tarapoto,
and we see and hear almost every day violent
thunderstorms skirting the pampa, but only occa-
sionally giving us a slight taste. Fogs, however,
are frequent in the mornings, and no doubt make
up for the deficiency
of the rains.
As to temperature, I have once had the pleasure
of seeing the thermometer at Tarapoto down to 6f
at daybreak. The sensation of cold was so great
that had I been in England I should have looked
to see the mist deposited on the trees in the shape
of hoar-frost. More commonly at that time of day
the thermometer marks from 72 to 75. At two
in the afternoon it gets up to 84 to 87, and in my
house to 95 to 98- -on one occasion to 100 .
On the hills it is much cooler, and even here we
have generally a strong northerly breeze from
10 A.M. to sunset, which tempers the heat. In
the months of November and December, I spent
three weeks on the Cerro de Campana, at three
days' journey to the west of this, and two d..
from Moyobamba. Here I got nearly 4000 feet
higher than the Pampa of Tarapoto, and the cold